Bertus

I have no idea why this album gets re-issued, but it has been released about one year ago. Unfortunately I cannot find the review done back then (otherwise I could just copy etc…), but anyway, I will keep it short. The band hails from the Canary Island (a part of Spain in the Atlantic) and was formed fifteen years ago. There was one full length before, called Entrance, which got released in 2010 via STF, and the band performed on stage in support of bands like Swallow The Sun and Dark Tranquillity.

If you ask me, Heart was at their height in the late 80ies, early nineties, when they got massive radio airplay, not only stateside, but even in Europe.  They scored massive hits at that time,like ‘Alone’, ‘These Dreams’ and other songs.

In 2006 4 bandmembers met each other on the Mannheimer popacademie and appear on 2006 under the backname of the singer “Hessler”.  After 3 years performing on stage they changed their name in “The Intersphere”.The current members are:

Christoph Hessler (vocals), Thomas Zipner (guitar), Sebastian Wagner (bass) and Moritz Müller (drums).

Nocturnal was formed out of the ashes of Bestial Desecration (a Teutonic trash metal band) somewhere in the year 2000. There was a new line up, but with the same vision: Trash metal highly inspired by bands from the German metal scene like Destruction.

Ian Stewart is a guitarist, songwriter, singer and producer, best known for his work with Strangeways. With them he was responsible for ‘Native Sons’ and ‘Walk In The Fire’, which are both classic albums in the AOR genre. However don’t expect anything similar on this solo album which he describes as ‘rock music for grown-ups’.

Conan a stoner/doom metal group, founded in Liverpool, UK in the year 2006. They can permit everything like the openings sentence of their bio on the site: “Conan are as heavy as interplanetary thunder amplified through the roaring black hole anus of Azathoth”. Yes you can expect everything. Members are: Phil Coumbe (Bass, Vocals), Paul O'Neill (Drums) and Jon Davis (Guitars, Vocals).

Stockholm-based outfit Circle Of Chaos return with their second full length, after 2010’s self-released Black Oblivion. The band also released the mini-album Twoheaded Serpent in 2012, by the way, and last year the band was joined by former Necrophobic-member Anders Strokirk on guitar, for your information.

Line up:

Dee Kivlehan – guitar

Decky Donohoe – drums

Dave McLaughlin – bass

Stevie McLaughlin – guitar

Sean McBay – vocals

‘Sandstone’, a melodic metal band from Ireland returns with their fourth album ‘Delta Virdian’.

Gun Barrel is a German heavy metal band formed in 1998 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. Gun Barrel was founded by Guido Feldhausen and Rolf Tanzius and released their first EP Back To Suicide (2000) with the line-up consisting of Guido Feldhausen (vocals), Rolf Tanzius (guitar), Holger Schulz (bass) and Florens Neuheuser (drums).

Earth Crisis is an American metalcore band from New York. The band originally formed in 1989, but its initial lineup was short-lived. Karl Buechner, (original bassist) formed a new lineup within the band in 1991, switching to lead vocals in the process. Buechner was joined by guitarists Scott Crouse, Ben Read, bassist Ian "Bulldog" Edwards and drummer Michael Riccardi.